1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to video games in which an object moves in a video game space in response to commands from a player.
2. Background Information
Video games in which an object moves in a video game space in response to commands from a player are well know in the prior art. Some examples of these include driving/piloting games in which a player drives a car or pilots an airplane, battle games in which a player battles an enemy by operating battle machines or animated characters that represent the player himself, and sports games in which a player plays a sport by operating an animated character that represent the player himself.
With aircraft piloting video games, for example, a player controls an aircraft by means of up/down and right/left arrow buttons or a controller modeled after an aircraft control stick. Likewise, with battle games a player carries out attacks on an enemy by controlling the movement of a battle machine with the controller or arrow buttons, or with instruction buttons that direct the use of weapons.
With sports video games, video game devices have been offered in which a player plays a soccer game by controlling the movements of an athlete character with arrow buttons or a variety of instruction buttons. For example, a boxing game has been offered in which a player stands in a predetermined position in real space and fits on gloves connected to the game device. The player attacks an opponent displayed on a screen in front of him by thrusting the gloves toward the screen. To defend against attacks from the opponent, the player dodges to the left/right in the predetermined position in real space.
In the driving/piloting games, battle games and soccer games described above, a player presses predetermined buttons or manipulates a bar to control objects within the game space. However, controlling objects by manipulating buttons or bars tends not to be very realistic. To begin with, commands that instruct which object within the game space is to move, and in what direction, are assigned to the buttons and bars in advance. Thus, movement of the objects by means of the buttons and bars is limited by the combinations of action patterns preset in the game.
One aspect of the boxing game described above that increases the enjoyment thereof is that the player's own punching and evading movements have an impact on how the game unfolds. However, this does not mean that the gloves that a player is wearing are displayed as objects within the game space, or that player movements to avoid attacks from the opponent are displayed as objects within the game space. Because of this, a player is not able to visually or physically sense his punch striking the opponent or having eluded the opponent's punch, and thus does not get enough of a true sense of reality in the boxing game.
In other words, a game device has yet to be offered in which players in real space can freely control objects within the game space and thereby feel as though they themselves are in the game space.